Relays in NGL Biathlon 2027: lineups, legs and handovers

NGL Biathlon 2027 has three relays: the standard one for men or women, the mixed relay and the single mixed relay. How many laps and shootings each has is covered in Race formats. This article is about the team: who gets in, who skis which leg, how the handover works and where relays show up in the career

Which countries can enter a team

A country takes part if it has enough athletes. The standard relay needs four of one gender, the mixed relay two men and two women, the single mixed relay one of each. Up to 21 teams start, and one of those places belongs to your own team

Sometimes more countries have a full team than there are places, most often in the mixed and single mixed relays. The Select Rivals screen then puts a checkbox on every row, and the ticked teams are the ones that start. When you first open it the 20 strongest by average rating are ticked, and you can move the ticks however you like. The same screen lets you change any rival team leg by leg

How the game orders the legs

In your own tournament and in the career the game first takes the country's strongest athletes, then gives each of them a leg. In the standard relay the order is:

• The fourth leg goes to the fastest athlete who has the Finisher skill. If nobody has it, the fastest athlete in the team skis it. That is also the only leg where the skill does anything: it switches on in the finishing straight, while the first three legs end at a handover
• The third leg goes to the best skier of those left
• The first leg goes to the better shooter of the last two, and the remaining athlete skis the second

In the mixed relay the format fixes the gender of each leg: two women and then two men, or the other way round. In a quick race you choose this with the Finishers row, while in the career and your own tournament the first mixed relay of the season finishes with a random gender and then they take turns. Inside each pair the slower athlete goes first. If only the first athlete of the finishing pair has Finisher, the two swap places. In the single mixed relay the man and the woman simply alternate, and who closes the race is decided the same way

In a quick race the team is only a suggestion. In the mixed relays it follows the same rule, and in the standard relay it is simply the four best by rating, from the weakest on the first leg to the strongest on the last. You can put any athlete of that country and the right gender on each leg of your team

Which leg you ski

In a quick race the track screen has a Stage row. With All you ski every leg of your team yourself, one after another. If you pick an athlete, you ski only that athlete's leg, or both legs in the single mixed relay, and the rest of the race is shown as a broadcast

In the career you ski your own athlete's leg. The career setting Run the relay for the whole team gives you every leg of your national team

The handover

The next athlete waits in the exchange zone and leaves the moment the teammate reaches the mark. The handover is instant and just as fast for you as for the computer, so no time is lost there. In the single mixed relay it comes straight after the standing shooting, with no lap between the range and the exchange zone

Spare rounds

At every relay shooting an athlete has three spare rounds. After the fifth shot, if any targets are still standing, each spare round is loaded with the Reload key. A penalty loop is skied only for the targets still standing after the eighth shot. The Extra shots in Relay setting turns spare rounds off, and then every miss costs a penalty loop straight away

Relays in the career

Which relays you get depends on the league. The standard relay appears only in the World Cup. The mixed and single mixed relays run as a pair in the World Cup and the WBU Cup, the Europe Cup has only the single mixed relay, and the Juniors Cup has no relays at all. A league championship has the same set of relays

The national team is made of the country's strongest athletes in that league by the overall standings, or by rating before the first race of the season. If the league does not have enough of them, the missing athletes come from the league below. Your athlete skis when they make that lineup; if they do not, you watch the relay. Your national team always gets a start place once it has a full team, however weak it is: the weakest of the other teams gives up its place

When the mixed relay and the single mixed relay sit next to each other at one stage, the same people do not ski both. A draw decides which of the three strongest of each gender goes to the single mixed relay, and before the first race of the pair the Two relays at one stage screen lets you choose which of the two you ski. If your country has athletes for only one team, it skis the race you are in

In your own tournament there is a Lineups button before a relay, where you can edit every team for that race. There are no relays online